Islanders put down fiesty Barracudas

The last games of Cayman’s ball hockey season before Christmas had an aquatic ring to them with some fierce sea creatures in action. In the end their toughness remained intact.

Game one of the usual double-header at the Logic arena saw the CIBC Islanders tangle with the Lone Star Barracudas. CIBC came into the match struggling in the cellar while Lone Star looked a prime contender to claim this season’s championship at Kings Sports Centre.

As it turned out the Barracudas had bite but not enough to injure CIBC. The Islanders showed tremendous grit to orchestrate an offensive onslaught that led to seven goals. Leading the way was captain Jamie Lyon who now sits sixth in scoring with 14 points and 11 assists. Among the skaters who benefitted from Lyon was Mark Missal who maintained his stranglehold on the league scoring title with 24 points and 17 goals.

With the likes of Chris Creighton joining the assault (nine points on the year) and Nigel Windsor playing solid in goal, CIBC had few worries. To the Barracudas’ credit they did notch five goals and Rob Seward inched higher up the scoring table with 14 points off 10 assists. Dan Allard (13 points, seven goals) also played well however the final score would read 7-5 in favour of the Islanders.

From there the Sharks and the BDO-CML Pirates faced off for the third and final time of the season in what has likely been the most even match-up in the league this season. With the Sharks looking to even the score after losing to the Pirates 3-2 and tying 3-3 earlier in the season, they struck first in the second half with Ashish Khulbe making an unstoppable tip on a shot from Brad Kirby.

Hard-working rookie Teddy Wegner tied it up for the Pirates shortly after.

The story of the match was the play in net as there was some great goal-tending from Shawn Lunt of the Sharks and Randy Cannon of the Pirates. The game went into overtime at 1-1. It would take a lucky break to give Lunt the last laugh as the Sharks’ Graeme Thompson buried the game-winner off of a defensive miscue.

With the victory the Sharks move into third place while the Pirates are a single point ahead of them and Devil Rays. Matches resume 6 January with Lone Star against the Sharks and Deloitte battling CIBC.